Canada's Grain Growers Chafe

Wheat Board Tensions
Stir Up Issues of Money
And Self-Determination

Canada's barley farmers, long insulated from the vagaries of global trade by the government-backed Canadian Wheat Board, will vote next week on whether to break free.

Some farmers view the 72-year-old board, which buys and sells their product on the world market, as inefficient. If the barley farmers are allowed to bolt, wheat farmers could follow, marking the biggest change in Canada's huge grain business in three generations.